For a pleasant change, there’s no “big” story here. Actually, there never is—but that doesn’t stop a certain someone from writing ad nauseum about the minutiae of every segment’s production process.

“Summer 911” was yet another late-breaking replacement story. In fact, it was a replacement of a replacement. The story that was originally scheduled for the season finale was bumped when Mark became obsessed with CBC’s Seven Wonders of Canada project. His new idea was to produce a spoof called “The Seven Blunders of the Yukon,” in which he and Jesse would canvas public opinion (in other words, whoever happened to be hanging around and was willing to do an interview) about the Yukon’s biggest mistakes. The criteria would have required the blunders to have some tangibility. Mark already had a long list of potential candidates in mind, ranging from the Haines Junction Muffin to the Dawson City Rec Centre, and he was curious to know what fellow Yukoners might come up with.

Plans changed when Mark and Jesse started to discuss the season finale while procrastinating on their departure for Segment 7’s camping trip in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Ever the voice of reason, Jesse expressed some concern that the Seven Blunders story might push our existing reputation as “the cynical guys” a little too far. He was probably right.

“Okay, no problem,” Mark said. “We can go back to the original idea.”

“Ahhhhh….” Jesse said.

He then pointed out that the original idea seemed somewhat half-baked, and we might be better off thinking of something entirely different.

So, for the first time since Smells Like Yukon was first developed and pitched, we put our heads together and tried to come up with a brand-new story idea. About a half-hour later, we had a vague concept for a seasonally-appropriate show that would help Yukoners make the most of our capricious summers.

A few days after the May Long weekend camping trip, Jesse e-mailed Mark his “brain dump” on the story. This brought together a few of the elements that we’d casually discussed in the intervening days. Very little happened until May 31, when Mark got the nod from Erin Deacon at Yukon Emergency Measures Organization to do a quick interview that would provide what we hoped would be the big “moment” (i.e. joke or twist) of the piece. For once, Mark was up front and, before the interview, explained to Erin exactly how he and Jesse intended to use her comments. He also alluded to the fact that, all joking aside, her participation might raise some awareness about EMO and emergency preparedness.

With time ticking away on the production timeline, Mark captured all of the remaining clips on June 2—a beautiful Saturday. A quick trip down the street found Stephane Aucoin, proprietor of Flying Pisces Fish & Chips, readying his trailer for the day’s commute to his waterfront location. Meanwhile, his partner Anna Pugh and her friend Malcolm Campbell were preparing for a casual mountain bike ride that, given Malcolm’s track record, could easily have ended in a Movie of the Week. (The fact that Malcolm’s bike shoes were hiking boots was NOT a promising sign). Whether Anna was brave or foolhardy for agreeing to the excursion is a matter for debate, but she fortunately made it back in one piece. Mark interviewed his three victimes in quick succession, posing the same set of questions to each one.

Later that day, after his own mountain bike ride, Mark interviewed Alastair Smith over an icy Yukon Gold on his back Deck. None of Alastair’s material made it into the script or the final piece, mostly because of time constraints. But that might have been for the better. In Alastair’s own words: “I have a tendency to be fairly focused at my work. Unfortunately, I’d look outside and see this great summer day, and then just get back to what it is I’m trying to do and miss the summer.” Not exactly the kind of lazy slacker mentality we were trying to tap into for the piece! However, the self-employed management consultant did give some good outtake, including two hypothetical excuses for blowing a deadline. We’re now happy to share these with you—not to mention Alastair’s clients, assuming they’re “on the SLY.”

Mark got up early the next morning, reviewed and catalogued all the clips, wrote a quick first draft of the script (minus a conclusion), and sent the draft off to Jesse for revision and completion. By that evening, the segment was in the bag. Jesse reports that he took a simpler approach to the use of music, thereby reducing the amount of time it took to edit the piece. We’ll be curious to know if listeners detect a stylistic change.

Well, that wraps up this “Behind the Sounds”, as well as the first season of Smells Like Yukon. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of work at times, especially at the start, but Jesse and Mark are both excited about returning in the fall on a more manageable monthly basis. All we need is the final word from CBC Yukon and we’ll be launching into production over the summer months.

(Posted June 06, 2007)